Mariehamn
Our early morning approach to the Åland Islands was idyllic: silky calm seas, a clear blue sky and warm sunshine, for the Baltic summer sun had scarcely set in the early hours of the morning before it began to rise again. This archipelago has an interesting history. Always poor agriculturally, its population early turned to the sea to make a living, with ships from the Åland Islands trading all over the Baltic and beyond. Coveted by rival powers as much for the skills of its people as for its strategic anchorage, it has at various times in its history been under Swedish, Russian and Finnish rule. Today, it is an autonomous (and demilitarized) province of the Republic of Finland, although its population is almost entirely Swedish-speaking. The arrangement seems to be happy one with both countries now part of the wider European Union.
Our morning visit concentrated on Åland's unique maritime heritage. The splendid Maritime Museum houses a unique collection of ship's paintings and other artifacts from the age of sail. After a guided tour we embarked the historic four-masted barque, the Pommern, sister ship to the Peking, now preserved at South Street Seaport in New York. The Pommern has been preserved as a museum and provides a rare opportunity to look at how a square-rigger from the last days of the age of sail was configured. A great surprise to many of us was the capacious hold and the very small cabin accommodations of the working crew. Built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1903, it was still active in the grain trade sailing out of Mariehamn to round Cape Horn for Australia as recently as the 1930s.
To round off our morning visit there were two surprises. A visit from the Captain Henrik Karlsson, skipper of Sea Cloud II whom several of us had sailed with on previous voyages and himself a native of Mariehamn. He had organized a visit by two groups of shanty singers, the one from Lübeck in Germany, the other from Turku in Finland, who delighted us with a selection of traditional sea shanties. In the evening after a fine dinner on board we were treated to some original footage from a voyage around Cape Horn on the Pommern shot in 1936-7. A thrilling end to a memorable day.
Our early morning approach to the Åland Islands was idyllic: silky calm seas, a clear blue sky and warm sunshine, for the Baltic summer sun had scarcely set in the early hours of the morning before it began to rise again. This archipelago has an interesting history. Always poor agriculturally, its population early turned to the sea to make a living, with ships from the Åland Islands trading all over the Baltic and beyond. Coveted by rival powers as much for the skills of its people as for its strategic anchorage, it has at various times in its history been under Swedish, Russian and Finnish rule. Today, it is an autonomous (and demilitarized) province of the Republic of Finland, although its population is almost entirely Swedish-speaking. The arrangement seems to be happy one with both countries now part of the wider European Union.
Our morning visit concentrated on Åland's unique maritime heritage. The splendid Maritime Museum houses a unique collection of ship's paintings and other artifacts from the age of sail. After a guided tour we embarked the historic four-masted barque, the Pommern, sister ship to the Peking, now preserved at South Street Seaport in New York. The Pommern has been preserved as a museum and provides a rare opportunity to look at how a square-rigger from the last days of the age of sail was configured. A great surprise to many of us was the capacious hold and the very small cabin accommodations of the working crew. Built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1903, it was still active in the grain trade sailing out of Mariehamn to round Cape Horn for Australia as recently as the 1930s.
To round off our morning visit there were two surprises. A visit from the Captain Henrik Karlsson, skipper of Sea Cloud II whom several of us had sailed with on previous voyages and himself a native of Mariehamn. He had organized a visit by two groups of shanty singers, the one from Lübeck in Germany, the other from Turku in Finland, who delighted us with a selection of traditional sea shanties. In the evening after a fine dinner on board we were treated to some original footage from a voyage around Cape Horn on the Pommern shot in 1936-7. A thrilling end to a memorable day.
